Chapter 7. Synthetic extracellular matrix biology

Abstract

This chapter provides recent progress in the development of synthetic fibrillar systems as cell-supporting extracellular matrices for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Since their discovery in early 90s such systems have given rise to what now constitutes a versatile tool of bottom-up nanoscale fabrication. Often seen as a self-sufficient discipline protein self-assembly aims at providing design rules for desired biological functions that are not necessarily represented in nature. Such aspirations serve the fundamentals of synthetic biology, as intimately as the very notion of biological engineering can possibly be. Therefore, the main emphasis here is given to the engineering aspects of synthetic extracellular biology, i.e. to the design and application of synthetic extracellular matrices for the cell therapy applications. Individual sections are arranged to highlight distinctive synthetic biology applications with a predominant emphasis on who structure relates to desired function. A section describing basic design principles introduces the need for synthetic designs. The chapter covers research findings published over the last few years to the time of its submission. A necessary reference to background information covers an unlimited timeframe. The chapter reviews literature sourced from different databases including Web of Science, RCSB Protein Data Bank and PubMed.